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Barnes moved to the area in July 2012. She says the problems started for her after renovations finished at Play and the establishment reopened last October.

“I’ve lived downtown for years, and so I’m used to living with noise,” Barnes says. “But this has been just a nightmare.”

A Star analysis of 33,587 entries in Toronto’s Municipal Licensing and Standards investigations database for 2013 reveals that 1032 Queen St. W. is the fifth most-investigated property in the city, with 30 complaints. (Topping the list with 59 complaints, of all types, was an apartment building at 79 Thorncliffe Park Dr.) Play is in Ward 19, one of the two Trinity-Spadina wards that together registered the highest number of resident complaints this year.

Across the city, 1032 Queen St. W. was second for complaints specifically about noise, with 23. That’s just behind 744 Mount Pleasant Rd. — the Seven44 Restaurant & Lounge — with 28.

Further analysis reveals that 1032 Queen St. W. has been the subject of noise complaints dating back to September 2011.

The rash of colour representing noise complaints in Toronto’s downtown core on the Star’s interactive map illustrates the rocky relationship between residents and business owners.

Play’s owners, Shlomo and Aurora Benzion, say they are the victims here.

“Businesses like ours have improved the neighbourhood,” Aurora says. “If you came down here, say seven years ago, a lot of businesses were run down, and there were crack whores and addicts on the corners.”

But she believes there will always be ingrained prejudice against people who own a bar or restaurant. “You’re in the dock automatically, and you’re judged and found guilty no matter what you do.”

The couple say they operate a restaurant and have spent $3,000 for a sound engineer to come in and ensure the music levels are at a legal limit.

“There are 24-hour-a-day streetcars that make more noise than our music,” says Shlomo, who claims one resident, John Rubinstein, has generated 90 per cent of the noise complaints.

Rubinstein says that’s not true.

“There’s a joint community impact statement written in English about Play that had sections written and signed by 13 adults representing eight households which also incorporated seven children,” says Rubinstein.

A second impact statement was written and signed by members of four different Portuguese-speaking households living in Play’s immediate vicinity.

Both statements were submitted to the city’s licensing and standards division, along with noise logs kept by several of the residents.

Kirsty Andrews says her two young daughters were regularly awakened by the establishment’s music.

“My 9-year-old’s bedroom window directly faces the club and she’s witnessed patrons throwing up in the street, fights outside the club, nudity and screaming,” she says.

Often she’s forced to pack up her children and take them out of town to her parents’ house just so they can get some sleep.

“I hate that I’m driven away from my own home,” says Andrews.

Scott Sullivan, manager of licensing enforcement for Toronto, says nine noise charges have been issued against Play in 2013 and are due to go to court this fall. If the business is found guilty the city could revoke its licence.

According to the city’s website, playing music loud enough to disturb neighbours is prohibited between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. the next day — and till 9 a.m. on Sundays and statutory holidays.

“But we also have other concerns about Play,” says Sullivan. “They hold a licence as an eating establishment, but we are of the belief that they are operating more as a nightclub.”

Nightclubs are typically only permitted in Toronto’s Entertainment District, according to Sullivan.

But Mike Layton, councillor for Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina, says the charges against Play won’t necessarily be the end of the matter.

“Businesses treat fines as just the cost of doing business,” he says.

So, Adrienne Barnes watches and waits.

“I’m hoping this all comes to an end,” she says. “I love living downtown, I don’t want to move, and I’m not going to move.”

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